Adventuring to Chile

Today I arrived in Chile to visit my boyfriend! I'll be here for 2 months and decided to try travel blogging! This post will be about how I planned the trip and how I made my way to Concepción.

I booked my ticket through American Airlines because I did a lot of traveling this past fall/winter for graduate school interviews and figured I'd see if I could add on some miles for a reasonable cost.
Burlington, VT is always expensive to fly out of. While it's the closest airport to my home, I chose Boston Logan because it's pretty easy to get to Boston from Burlington.
I started my travels Thursday night. Greyhound was my travel option of choice to get to Boston because it was the cheapest ($15!!). Although the trip was excessively long (7:40pm-7am) as there was a huge layover at Burlington Airport and no options Friday morning early enough for me to check into my flight on time. The bus was late of course and Greyhound seats are VERY uncomfortable, but for $15 I can't really complain too much.

I arrived at the South Station around 8am, with plenty of time to get to the airport as my flight was scheduled for the afternoon. From there, I took the Silver line on the T to get to the airport. Signs to the silver line were well marked, the ride was less than $3, and it was direct transportation from South Station to the Airport. Inside the Silver line, there are signs that help you figure out which stop/terminal you get off on. From there I kind of just hung out in the airport until I needed to check in for my flight.

My flight ended up being delayed, but I received an email from American Airlines notifying me of the change. I went to the customer service desk concerned I would miss my flight from Miami to Santiago with my flight from Boston to Miami being delayed. They changed my flight and I arrived in Miami with plenty of time to stretch and move around before my flight to Santiago. The in-air hours totaled around 12. Definitely check on the number of checked bags you're allowed free of charge for your flights! International travel to Chile allows 2 checked bags with no additional charge, which was really helpful because I packed my ski boots and winter clothes.

Customs and passport stamping were fairly quick, but the flight to Santiago, Chile was delayed a few minutes and we had to wait for a plane to pull out of the port before we could connect to the tunnel and deplane.

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FINALLY getting to see Simón after 2.5 months apart was fantastic! <3 We boarded a bus to the main station in Santiago, grabbed a bite to eat, then boarded yet another bus to Concepción. The total bus trip was about 7 hours. The view was incredible! There were mountains on either side of us at one point; the Andes on the left and the coastal range to the left. There was a lot of smog for a long time on our way out of Santiago. Simón says that the smog gets trapped in by the mountains because they surround the city. 

Concepción certainly has so far seemed a lot cleaner than Santiago, but I've been in Simón's apartment all afternoon because both of us are exhausted. No pictures just yet because I didn't take any good ones worth sharing.  Tomorrow will be another adventure :)